#SustainabilityMonth: Greenpop's Got Wood

This campaign initially started out as a joke, how did making it into a reality come about?

Arbor Month is our biggest fundraising period of the year, so we knew even when just brainstorming that we wanted our campaign to stand out. We initially thought of other iconic campaigns such as the ‘Got Milk’ advertisements, and our coworker Liam Brickhill jokingly came up with the phrase ‘Got Wood’. While at first this was just an offhand comment that made everyone laugh, we soon realised that it could actually work. We knew we wanted a proactive campaign that people would remember, and with that catchphrase, we finally had a place to start. We immediately began drawing up a list of Greenpop’s partners, companies we had worked with in the past, and friends that were part of local organisations, and before long we had 25 men that were willing to bare it all for the trees!

What has the response been like and how successful has the campaign been?

The response we received has been absolutely amazing! Of course we wanted the campaign to be a success, but we never expected it to go viral or get as much publicity as it did. It has been posted by over 50 media sources in more than 13 countries, which is what has shocked us the most. The reactions we’ve received from both local and international viewers has been overall very positive, and individuals have shared and posted it to their personal pages over 1,500 times!

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Was the goal to raise R120,000 by 30 September realised?

Our goal of fundraising R120,000, or 1,000 trees, in one month was an extremely ambitious target that we chose in order to pay homage to Greenpop’s beginnings as an organisation. Before Greenpop was formed, our founders set off on a goal to plant 1,000 trees in a single month. Arbor Month marked the six year anniversary of this event, and although we were not able to reach our ambitious goal, we were able to fundraise over R80,000 which will allow us to plant more than 670 trees throughout Southern Africa!

How did you choose the 25 men featured? Was it easy enough to convince them to get their kit off?

We are extremely fortunate to surround ourselves here at Greenpop with organisations and individuals that are such motivated and accomplished changemakers, and the men that participated in this campaign are no exception. We expected to get a bit of resistance, or at the very least hesitation, from the people we pitched this idea to, but the men who starred in our campaign all thought the idea was a hilarious way to make an impact and were keen to participate.

You plan to turn these images into a calendar right? When and how will this be available?

Our plan is to give this campaign new life by turning it into a calendar. We plan to release this calendar around Christmas time, and are currently in the middle of creating surveys, so our followers can let us know exactly what they hope to see in this calendar!

Can we expect this campaign to turn into an annual event?

We have thrown around the idea of recreating this campaign again, but as of right now we are not planning on turning the Got Wood campaign into an annual event. The success of this campaign has been incredible, and we attribute much of that success to how shocking it felt to our audience during its release. Our intent for next year’s Arbor Month is to release a new, fresh campaign that will once again inform, entertain, and entice our followers!

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

How important is it to make being eco-conscious fun and sexy?

One of our main goals as an organisation is to make being eco-conscious sexy and fun, so this campaign fell perfectly into our niche. Our name itself is an indication of this goal: green, meaning sustainable and eco-friendly, and pop, meaning popular and mainstream.

Can you tell us a bit about your involvement with the recent Rocking the Daisies.

We have just finished another successful weekend of running the Green Village at Superbalist is Rocking the Daisies. The Green Village is an eco-friendly and sustainable space within the festival with a full stage, many activations such as acro yoga and hoola hooping, delicious vegan food, and much, much more. This space is entirely run by Greenpop with help from our partners at Hemporium, Fry’s Family Foods, TEDxCapeTown, Sunshine Cinema, and many others. For a glimpse into our experience, check out this recap video made by Sunshine Cinema.

If your personality could be represented by a tree, what would it be and why?

We love all trees, so it's difficult to pick just one that represents us as an organisation. If we had to pick one tree though, we would choose the Wild Olive Tree. This is a tree that is indigenous to South Africa that we often plant as a part of our Urban Greening Programme. The Wild Olive Tree has strong roots and is able to not only survive, but thrive in a multitude of environments and conditions.